Sitting under the grow lights of God

Today, I think about gardens as a week of warm weather approaches, and I'm preparing a pan of 4" tall baby Bok choy plants and a few pots of oregano to go outside to harden off before they're planted outside. I also tucked many more seeds into their little earthen beds to get started under the grow lights. I laughed about how I'd bought my greenhouse thinking I could force my garden early and how, for the first year, it hadn't worked - at all. I scoured books and tested soil, replanted many times, bemoaning my purchases with each credit card click.

It wasn't until the following year that I began to understand, as instead of reading about it, I paid attention to the rhythm of the seasons—one day, the tomato seeds I thought hadn't survived the winter started to sprout up through the warmed soil after many days of longer light. All healthy and strong in their own time - ask any of the Lynn Valley neighbours with whom I shared those hundreds of seedlings; far too much bounty for my own garden!

I read a post yesterday that said there's not a seed shortage but a shortage of education (they discussed not having to purchase seeds but harvesting them from our own fruit and vegetables when possible). And education in terms of knowing the seasons, feeling them, and paying attention to nature.

Aha! Now I understand! There truly is God's speed, a speed at which everything moves, a speed at which seeds and people grow; sometimes we can see it, and sometimes we can't, but it is always there. We may just need to sit under the grow lights until we're ready.